D  i  HE  CHURCHES 


Why  Some  of  Them  are  Outside, 

and  Why  They  Ought  to  Come  In. 


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Young  Men  and  the  Churches: 


Why  Some  of  Them,  are  Outside,  and  Why 
They  OugJit  to  Come  In. 


BY  WASHINGTON   GLADDEN. 
H 


BOSTON : 

Congregational  Suntrng^cfjool  anti  ^ublisfjt 

CORNER  BEACON  AND  SOMERSET  STREETS. 
1885. 


COPYRIGHTED,  1885,  BY 
CONGREGATIONAL  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  AND  PUBLISHING  SOCIETY. 

\ 


Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  Stanley  and  Usher,  Boston. 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 


THE  pastors  of  the  churches  throughout  the 
country  were  requested  to  devote  the  second' 
Sunday  of  November  to  the  interests  of  young 
men.  In  consenting  to  this  request,  I  prom- 
ised to  speak  upon  the  reasons  why  many 
young  men  hold  themselves  aloof  from  the. 
churches.  After  making  this  promise,  it 
occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  only  fair  to> 
allow  the  young  men  to  state  these  reasons 
for  themselves.  My  explanation  of  their  con- 
duct might  not  truly  represent  them.  Accord- 
ingly I  prepared  the  following  circular-letter, 
which  was  sent,  by  the  kind  co-operation  of 
some  young  gentlemen  of  wide  acquaintance, 
to  about  two  hundred  representative  young 
men  in  the  city  where  I  reside,  some  of 
whom  are  members  of  the  churches  and  many 
of  whom  are  not :  — 

383329 


4  'The  Youug  Men  arid  tJie  Churches. 

"My  Dear  Sir, — You  know  many  young 
men  in  this  city  who  seldom  or  never  attend 
church,  and  many  more  who  occasionally 
attend,  but  do  not  identify  themselves  with 
the  work  of  the  churches. 

"You  have  heard  young  men  of  both  these 
classes  express  their  views  on  the  subject. 
What  reasons  do  they  give  for  holding  aloof 
from  the  churches  ? 

"  I  am  very  desirous  of  finding  out  how  this 
matter  lies  in  their  minds,  and  I  shall  con- 
sider it  a  great  favor  if  you  will  report  to  me, 
within  a  day  or  two,  without  mentioning  the 
names  of  persons,  some  of  the  explanations 
given  by  young  men  of  their  absence  from 
church,  and  their  refusal  to  enter  upon  the 
Christian  life. 

"  I  shall  regard  your  communication  as  con- 
fidential :  I  only  wish  to  get  at  the  obstacles, 
real  or  imaginary,  which  keep  so  many  young 
men  out  of  the  churches.  You  can  help  me, 
and  I  feel  confident  that  you  will  do  me  this 
great  kindness. 

"If  you  have  not  time  to  write  at  length, 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.  5 

you  may  state  these  objections  or  excuses 
in  the  briefest  terms;  but  I  shall  be  glad  to 
read  all  that  you  are  willing  to  write." 

To  this  circular  I  received  a  large  number 
of  replies.  The  opinions  of  nearly  fifty  young 
men  were  thus  reported  to  me  ;  several  of 
them  at  considerable  length.  Each  letter 
presents  from  one  to  fifteen  reasons  why 
young  men  absent  themselves  from  the 
churches,  or  decline  to  enter  into  their  fel- 
lowship. Some  of  these  reasons  are  many 
times  repeated  ;  but  a  careful  analysis  of  the 
letters  gave  me  no  less  than  twenty-nine  dif- 
ferent explanations  of  the  fact  under  consid- 
eration. The  thorough  examination  of  these 
explanations  is  the  business  now  in  hand. 
I  shall  not  assume  that  they  are  unreason- 
able ;  I  desire  to  note  them  all,  to  estimate 
them  fairly,  and  to  give  to  each  one  all  the 
weight  that  belongs  to  it.  If,  after  a  dispas- 
sionate study,  it  shall  seem  to  any  young 
man  who  reads  these  pages  that  the  reasons 
given  for  holding  aloof  from  the  churches  are 


6  The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches* 

good  and  sufficient  reasons,  then,  of  course,  he 
*  will  stay  away.  If  on  the  other  hand,  it  shall 
appear  to  him  that  the  good  reasons  are  on 
the  other  side  of  the  case,  I  hope  he  will 
govern  himself  accordingly. 

Another  remark  should  be  made  just  here. 
These  discussions  do  not  proceed  on  the 
assumption  that  all  the  young  men  of  this 
generation  are  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
churches.  The  proportion  of  young  men  in 
the  active  church  membership  is  larger  now 
than  when  I  was  a  boy.  The  "  young-man 
power"  is  utilized  now  as  it  did  not  begin  to 
be  thirty  years  ago.  In  the  first  year  of  my 
ministry,  the  number  of  young  men  in  my 
congregation  was  relatively  much  smaller  than 
it  is  to-day.  This  element  has  been  steadily 
increasing  under  my  eyes  from  year  to  year. 
During  the  last  two  years  I  have  preached  to 
more  young  men  than  ever  before.  I  do  not, 
therefore,  admit  that  neglect  of  the  church  is 
increasing  among  young  men,  but  I  recognize 
the  neglect  that  exists,  and  have  taken  this 
way  of  trying  to  account  for  it. 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.  7 

i.  A  considerable  number  of  these  reasons 
are  presented  rather  jocosely  than  seriously, 
and  do  not  weigh  very  heavily  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  offer  them.  They  are  not  diffi- 
culties ;  they  are  pretexts  rather.  One  of 
my  correspondents  reports  a  young  man  as 
saying  that  his  reason  for  not  going  to  church 
is  that  his  sweetheart  does  not  go.  But  that 
is  chaff.  There  is  a  deeper  reason.  One  is 
reported  as  offering  the  excuse  that  the 
churches  are  cold  in  the  winter.  His  spring 
and  summer  and  autumn  excuses  are  not 
given.  I  trust  that  the  winter  excuse  is  not 
a  valid  one.  Fuel  is  cheap  in  this  country, 
and  the  churches  ought  not  to  be,  and  I  trust 
are  not,  generally,  inhospitable  by  reason  of  the 
cold.  One  says  that  many  young  men  feel  shy 
in  the  presence  of  older  persons.  Not  so 
shy,  however,  but  that  they  manage  to  meet 
them,  without  much  embarrassment,  on  the 
pavements,  and  in  the  stores,  and  on  the  street- 
cars, and  at  the  theatres,  and  in  the  political 
processions.  There  may  be  young  men  to 
whom  this  is  a  real  difficulty  ;  but  they  are 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

very  few.  Lack  of  suitable  apparel  is  also 
mentioned  as  a  reason  for  the  absence  of  some 
from  church,  but  that  reason,  too,  must  operate 
to  a  limited  extent.  There  are  not  many 
able-bodied  young  men  in  our  cities  who 
cannot  readily  obtain  the  necessary  clothing. 
One  young  man  is  reported  as  saying  that 
he  avoids  the  church  because  he  does  not  like 
to  hear  politics  discussed  in  the  pulpits :  he 
wants  to  hear  a  good  Christian  sermon  when 
he  goes.  This  can  hardly  be  a  serious  reason. 
Our  pulpits  are  not,  as  a  rule,  given  over  to 
the  discussion  of  politics.  An  objection 
exactly  the  reverse  of  this  is  urged  by  several 
who  say  that  the  topics  of  the  preachers  are 
often  too  remote  from  human  life,  too  abstract 
and  theological ;  that  if  they  would  discuss 
current  questions  and  living  subjects  they 
would  get  a  hearing.  I  am  sure  that  both 
these  classes  can  suit  themselves,  if  they  will 
try.  They  can  find  churches  in  which  none 
but  purely  religious  topics  are  ever  introduced ; 
and  they  can  find  churches  in  which  Christian 
truth  is  frequently  applied  to  the  interests 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.  9 

of  society  and  the  state,  and  the  affairs  of 
every  day.  One  young  man  hides  behind 
the  contribution-box.  "  Can't  pay,  so  stay 
away,"  is  his  justification,  as  reported  to  me. 
But  this,  too,  is  a  subterfuge.  The  small 
amount  that  he  would  feel  himself  required 
to  contribute,  as  his  share,  for  the  support  of 
the  church,  would  not  tax  him  heavily.  He 
would  not  hesitate  to  pay  this  price  for  any- 
thing that  he  really  valued. 

2.  An  explanation  offered  by  several  of  my 
correspondents  of  the  absence  of  some  young 
men  from  the  churches  is  the  lack  of  religious 
training  in  their  earlier  years.  They  were  not 
brought  up  to  go  to  church  and  have  never 
formed  the  habit.  Another  explanation,  the 
antithesis  of  this,  is  that  many  were  compelled 
to  go  while  they  were  young,  and  under  this 
compulsion  formed  an  aversion  to  the  church 
that  they  have  never  been  able  to  overcome. 
The  two  objections  may  be  thought  to  cancel 
each  other.  If  those  who  were  brought  up  to 
go  will  not  go,  and  those  who  were  not  brought 
up  to  go  will  not  go,  of  course  nobody  will 


io          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

go.  Nevertheless,  there  may  be  some  force 
in  both  of  these  excuses.  The  habit  of  church- 
going  is  not  so  easily  formed  by  a  mature 
person ;  most  of  those  who  attend  church 
have  done  so  from  their  childhood.  Children 
must  be  trained  to  go.  Not  to  have  had 
this  training  is  a  disadvantage.  Nevertheless, 
it  is  far  better  if  the  training  can  stop  short 
of  coercion.  This  is  a  department  of  house- 
hold discipline,  in  which  wisdom  and  tact 
and  gentleness  and  loving  constraint  are 
called  for,  and  in  which  the  minimum  of 
power  should  be  used.  Neither  of  these 
is,  however,  a  reason  that  any  sensible  young 
man  would  give  for  not  attending  church.  If 
he  thinks  it  wise  and  right  to  go,  he  will  go  > 
the  fact  that  his  parents  were  unfaithful  or 
overstrict  with  him,  in  his  childhood,  is  a 
poor  reason  for  not  now  doing  the  thing  that 
is  wise  and  right. 

3.  Caste  is  a  reason  given  by  several.  One 
young  man  when  questioned  replied  that  he 
did  not  feel  at  home  in  the  presence  of  those 
whom  he  styled  " big-bugs"  and  "aristocrats." 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         1 1 

I  am  sure  that  this  is  an  utter  misconception. 
It  is  possible  that  there  may  be  some  churches 
in  which  a  poor  young  would  not  feel  at  home  ; 
but  there  is  no  city  in  which  there  are  not 
plenty  of  churches  that  are  wholly  free  from 
everything  that  savors  of  caste  —  as  free  as 
any  institution  can  be  in  which  human  beings 
enter  into  social  relations.  There  are  many 
churches  in  which  the  poor  greatly  outnumber 
the  rich ;  in  which  the  "  big-bugs  "  are  in  a 
small  minority  ;  in  which  the  poor  men  have 
as  many  rights,  and  as  much  respect,  as  the 
rich  men.  The  young  man  who  is  afraid  of 
caste  can  easily  find  such  churches,  if  he  wants 
to  find  them. 

4.  Kindred  to  this  is  the  complaint  of  lack 
of  attention  from  members  of  the  churches. 
It  may  be  that  there  are  churches  where 
young  men  are  not  wanted  ;  but  it  will  not 
take  any  enterprising  fellow  very  long  to  find 
a  church  where  he  is  wanted  ;  where  a  warm 
welcome  will  be  given  him,  and  every  assur- 
ance of  interest  and  friendship.  This  excuse 
looks  extremely  attenuated  to  some  of  us  who 


12          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

are  inside,  and  who  know  how  earnestly  we 
think  and  how  constantly  we  work  upon  this 
problem  of  bringing  the  young  men  into  our 
churches,  and  making  them  feel  at  home. 
Another  objection  is,  possibly,  more  just.  One 
of  the  young  gentlemen  gently  complains 
because,  although  sometimes  attending  church, 
he  has  seen  no  opportunity  of  taking  an  active 
part  in  the  work  of  the  church.  He  has  not 
connected  himself  with  the  church  because,  so 
far  as  he  has  been  able  to  discover,  the  church 
has  had  no  particular  use  for  him.  "  If  you  want 
a  young  man,  you  must  give  him  something  to 
do/*  he  says.  That  is  true.  I  am  afraid  the 
best  of  us  fail  sometimes  in  this.  Neverthe- 
less, the  young  man  who  comes  forward  and 
volunteers  for  service  will  generally  find  some- 
thing to  do. 

5.  Certain  social  reasons  are  mentioned,  not 
by  the  neglecters  themselves,  but  by  those  who 
have  been  studying  the  question.  "  It  is  not 
popular  among  society  people,"  writes  one,  "to 
be  openly  and  actively  identified  with  church 
work.  The  popular  young  society  man  is  rarely 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         1 3 

the  regular  and  active  worker  in  the  church. 
Most  young  men  are  pleased,  more  or  less,  with 
this  popularity  in  social  circles  ;  and  they  obey 
society's  dictates  rather  than  the  dictates  of 
their  religious  duty.  Society  tolerates,  and 
sometimes  encourages,  many  things  among 
young  people  that  religion  does  not  permit,  and 
the  temptation  to  listen  to  society's  voice  is  very 
strong."  That  this  is  true,  I  fear  ;  and  pity  't  is, 
'tis  true.  The  heathenism  of  what  is  called 
"  society  "  is  too  obvious.  But  no  sound-minded 
young  man  should  submit  to  its  domination. 
The  one  thing  he  must  learn  to  do,  if  he  would 
save  his  manhood,  is  to  resist  the  demands  of 
society.  Society  will  lead  him,  if  he  will  follow, 
into  all  sorts  of  extravagances  and  excesses  ;  it 
urges  him  to  sacrifice  his  health  upon  its  altars ; 
it  bids  him  incur  expenses  that  he  can  never 
afford ;  it  is  an  utterly  reasonless  and  conscience- 
less despot,  and  its  exactions  are  insatiable. 
Unless  he  can  challenge  its  demands  at  every 
step,  and  hold  his  manhood  superior  to  its 
claims,  he  had  better  keep  himself  wholly  free 
from  its  dominion.  And  if  its  dictates  are 


14         The  Young  Men  and  the  Chiirches. 

unwise  respecting  so  many  of  these  matters, 
perhaps  they  are  no  more  wise  respecting  the 
churches.  At  any  rate,  it  is  clear  that  no  self- 
respecting  young  man  would  ever  justify  him- 
self for  staying  away  from  church  on  the  ground 
that  church-going  is  not  popular  among  society 
people  ;  he  would  despise  himself,  if  he  found 
himself  acting  from  any  such  motive.  Another 
social  reason  suggested  by  one  of  my  corre- 
spondents is  "  the  growth  of  clubs  and  fraternal 
organizations  that  offer  a  greater  diversity  of 
social,  mental,  and  physical  enjoyments  than 
does  the  church."  These  associations  may 
often  be  innocent  and  even  useful.  I  have 
nothing  to  say,  here,  against  them.  And 
if  the  object  of  the  church  be  only  to  afford 
a  "diversity  of  social,  mental,  and  physical 
enjoyments/'  then  there  may  be  good  reasons 
for  abandoning  the  church  and  joining  these 
organizations.  But  if  the  church  exist  for 
other  and  higher  purposes,  and  supplies 
wants  that  these  organizations  do  not 
recognize,  then  this  reason  is  altogether 
insufficient. 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.          1 5 

6.  Two  or  three  students  frankly  tell  me  that 
they  stay  away  from  church  to  study.  They  do 
not  well.  It  is  not  necessary.  I  know  some- 
thing about  student  life,  and  I  know  that  a 
student  can  do  his  work  well  and  stand  high  in 
his  classes  without  studying  Sunday  at  all.  No 
man  can  healthfully  do  the  amount  of  work 
required  of  a  successful  student  nowadays 
without  keeping  his  Sundays  for  mental  rest. 
The  fact  is  that  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  is  as 
much  a  natural  law  as  the  law  of  gravitation; 
it  can  be  verified,  scientifically,  by  experiment, 
in  the  same  way  that  gravitation  can  be  verified, 
though  not  with  the  same  instruments  ;  and  he 
who  will  not  obey  it  will  suffer  the  consequences. 
If  we  are  to  have  a  Sunday  at  all,  I  see  no  rea- 
son why  students  should  not  observe  it,  as  well 
as  other  folks.  Study  is  their  work.  If  there 
is  any  law  of  the  Sabbath  binding  on  man,  their 
work  violates  it  as  much  as  that  of  the  mer- 
chant who  keeps  his  store  open,  or  the  black- 
smith who  works  at  his  forge  all  day.  And 
even  if  there  is  no  legal  requirement  of  Sabbath 
rest,  if  the  day  is  only  a  dear  privilege  of 


1 6         The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

mental  repose  and  spiritual  refreshment,  they 
despise  the  privilege  and  contemn  the  love 
that  ordained  it.  They  cannot  afford  to  do  it. 
I  tell  you,  young  gentlemen,  you  cannot  with 
impunity  disobey  any  of  the  divine  laws.  In 
the  rough,  but  not  irreverent,  words  of  Hosea 

Biglow, 

'  *  You  have  got  to  get  up  airly 
If  you  want  to  take  in  God." 

There  are  other  and  deeper  wants  of  your 
natures  than  those  which  are  supplied  at 
school  and  college,  and  you  must  give  some 
heed  to  them,  if  you  want  to  be  fully  developed 
men  and  women.  Sunday  is  set  apart  for  the 
culture  of  this  part  of  your  nature,  and  you 
cannot  devote  it  to  any  other  uses  without 
damage.  And  besides,  the  only  way  to  save 
the  day  from  public  desecration  and  utter 
extinction  is  to  honor  it  ourselves  in  our  own 
private  and  personal  use  of  it.  We  shall  never 
enforce  the  Sunday  laws  against  the  saloon- 
keepers and  the  ball-players  until  we  show 
more  respect  for  Sunday  by  our  own  religious 
observance  of  it. 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         17 

7.  From  quite  a  number  of  young  men  comes 
the  complaint  that  the  church  services  are  too 
dull  and  the  sermons  too  long.  These  objec- 
tions are  not  made  by  the  young  men  who  write 
to  me  as  their  own  objections  ;  they  are  too 
polite  to  express  this  as  their  own  opinion,  of 
course  ;  but  they  report  to  me,  as  I  desired  them 
to  do,  very  properly  and  courteously,  what  they 
hear  others  say.  "  Some  have  frankly  said  to 
me,"  writes  one  of  my  correspondents,  "  that 
ministers  preach  too  long  sermons ;  are  too 
prosy  ;  not  entertaining  enough,  etc."  "  Don't 
like  to  hear  long  and  dry  sermons  and  prayers," 
says  another ;  "  would  like  to  take  mine  in 
smaller  amounts."  Seven  or  eight  of  these 
young  fellows  offer  this  reason.  It  seems  to 
me  that  this  objection  as  to  length  is  a  little 
overstated.  The  church  services,  ordinarily, 
are  not  more  than  an  hour  and  a  half  in  length. 
Within  this  time  there  are,  in  our  non-episcopal 
Protestant  churches,  at  least  ten  different  ex- 
ercises :  a  voluntary  on  the  organ,  an  anthem 
by  the  choir,  two  or  three  hymns  by  the  congre- 
gation, a  reading  from  the  Bible,  two  or  three 


1 8          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

prayers,  and  the  sermon.  The  sermon  is  rarely 
more  than  thirty-five  minutes  long,  and  the 
whole  service  is  not  more  than  an  hour  and  a 
half  in  length.  A  concert  often  lasts  an  hour 
longer  than  that,  and  a  theatrical  performance 
nearly  twice  as  long.  With  all  the  variety  we 
introduce  into  the  service,  an  hour  and  twenty 
minutes  or  an  hour  and  a  half  ought  not  to  be 
considered  a  great  infliction,  even  by  active  and 
restless  young  men.  If  they  were  thoroughly 
interested  in  what  was  going  on  they  would  not 
feel  that  it  was  a  long  time.  "  But  there 's  the 
rub,"  they  say.  "  We  are  not  interested,  and 
you  do  not  interest  us.  You  are  not  entertain- 
ing enough."  Well,  I  fear  that  we  are  some- 
times a  little  prosy.  But  many  of  us  do  the  best 
we  can  to  present  what  we  have  to  say  in  a 
manner  as  clear  and  interesting  as  the  subject 
will  admit.  The  subjects  treated  here  are, 
however,  serious  subjects  ;  they  demand  serious 
thought ;  to  attempt  to  treat  them  always  in 
an  amusing  or  diverting  manner  would  be  to 
degrade  them.  The  church  is  not  a  place  of 
amusement ;  if  it  undertook  to  be,  it  would 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches          19 

soon  lose  the  respect  of  those  who  raise  this 
objection.  Amusement  is  a  good  thing  in  its 
place ;  but  there  are  other  important  interests 
of  human  life  besides  amusement.  All  earnest 
and  useful  living  requires  the  application  of 
thought  and  effort  to  subjects  that  are  not 
easily  mastered,  and  that  grow  somewhat  trite 
before  we  are  done  with  them.  The  student  of 
law,  of  medicine,  of  government,  finds  that  his 
studies  are  often  wearisome ;  the  devotee  of 
any  art  must  give  many  hours  to  repetitious 
and  laborious  practice.  Suppose  the  law  stu- 
dent should  complain  because  the  professor  of 
constitutional  law  did  not  embellish  his  lectures 
with  funny  stories,  and  dramatic  delineations, 
and  elocutionary  acrobatics.  The  great  ques- 
tions of  duty  and  destiny  deserve  to  be  treated 
quite  as  seriously ;  the  art  of  holy  living  can 
not  be  learned  without  some  close  and  earnest 
study.  The  demand  for  diverting  novelties 
from  the  pulpit  indicates  a  lack  of  seriousness 
and  a  grave  misconception  of  the  meaning  of 
life.  Some  of  these  letters  undertake  to 
explain  this  difficulty.  "  Many  of  these  young 


2O          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

men,"  says  one,  "have  loose  and  sometimes 
vicious  tastes.  Christian  life,  as  they  see  it, 
would  be  dull,  narrow,  and  plodding.  Their 
tastes  seek  enjoyment  of  a  different  character, 
depending  on  the  moral  tone  of  the  person. 
Church-work  and  church-going,  to  such,  lack 
excitement,  and  the  kind  of  excitement  nec- 
essary to  their  pleasure."  Another  says  that 
the  reason  why  some  of  these  young  men  find 
these  services  dull  is  that  they  have  but  little 
intellectual  culture ;  that  "  they  are  not  in  the 
habit  of  using  their  brains."  "  My  own  opinion 
is,"  says  another, — and  he  is  not  a  member 
of  the  church,  — "  that  many  young  people 
nowadays  feed  themselves  upon  such  highly 
seasoned  enjoyments,  and  indulge  to  so  great 
an  extent  in  exciting  pleasures  (as  theatre- 
going,  roller-skating,  dancing,  etc.),  that  church- 
going  is  irksome  to  them,  and  the  best  of 
sermons  pall  upon  their  pampered  intellectual 
palates  as  insipid  and  distasteful." 

Understand  that  I  do  not  offer  this  as  my 
own  explanation  of  the  complaint  of  dulness 
brought  against  the  pulpit  services :  I  report  it 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         2 1 

as  an  opinion  expressed  by  two  or  three  of  my 
correspondents.  But  it  is  certainly  true  that 
the  hour  spent  in  church  ought  to  be  an  hour 
not  for  pleasurable  excitement,  but  for  quiet  and 
sober  thinking  on  the  greatest  of  themes.  He 
who  comes  to  church  with  this  idea  in  his 
mind  may  possibly  make  less  complaint  of  the 
dulness  of  its  services. 

8.  The  reason  given  by  the  largest  number 
of  those  who  have  explained  their  absence 
from  church  is  that  they  prefer  to  devote  the 
time  to  other  uses  —  to  rest  or  recreation,  or 
reading,  or  society.  Some  of  them  say  that 
they  are  obliged  to  work  very  hard  during  the 
week,  and  to  be  up  late  Saturday  nights  ;  and 
they  take  their  ease  Sunday  morning.;  spend 
the  day  lounging  or  reading,  or  in  making 
excursions  into  the  country,  and  devote  the 
evening  to  social  visiting.  "  Like  to  sleep  Sun- 
day mornings,  read  the  papers  in  the  afternoons, 
and  go  to  see  my  girl  Sunday  night/'  says 
one  frank  fellow,  whose  name  I  do  not  know, 
but  whose  confession  I  have  in  his  own  hand- 
writing. The  plea  for  Sunday  morning  for 


22          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

sleep  is  several  times  repeated.  I  do  not  think 
it  is  altogether  irrational,  but  it  needs  some 
examination.  Part  of  this  Sunday  morning 
sleep  is  required,  perhaps,  to  make  up  arrears 
of  the  other  nights  of  the  week,  when  time 
that  ought  to  have  been  given  to  sleep  was 
devoted  to  various  owlish  occupations.  If 
some  of  the  young  men  who  make  this  com- 
plaint were  in  bed  all  the  other  nights  of  the 
week  at  a  reasonable  hour,  they  would  not  be 
so  sleepy  Sunday  morning.  The  attempt  to 
make  up  the  sleep  of  seven  days  upon  one 
day  in  the  week  is  a  highly  unphysiological 
proceeding.  Give  each  day  its  proper 
amount  of  sleep,  and  you  will  need  less  on 
Sunday.  But  it  is  probable  that  most  of  those 
who  make  this  plea  are  able  to  retire  on  Satur- 
day night  before  twelve  o'clock.  If  they  take 
nine  hours  for  sleep,  —  and  that  is  all  that  they 
can  wisely  take  at  one  time,  —  they  will  have 
two  hours  left  for  toilet  and  breakfast  before 
the  morning  service. 

But  it  is  not  merely  for  sleep  that  the  day 
is  claimed, — that  claim  only  touches  the  morn- 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         23 

ing  service, — but  for  recreation  and  pleasure. 
Some  like  to  read ;  the  Sunday  newspaper 
occupies  the  time  of  many ;  other  reading, 
some  of  it  more  profitable  doubtless,  enlists 
the  interest  of  some. 

The  chief  use  of  the  day,  however,  with 
most  of  those  who  give  this  reason,  is  recre- 
ation. "  I  work  hard  all  the  week,  and  I  think 
I  enjoy  outdoor  pleasure  most,"  one  is  reported 
as  saying.  "  I  have  heard  a  great  many 
others,"  writes  one,  "  urge,  as  their  reason 
for  not  attending  church  on  the  Sabbath,  that 
it  was  the  only  day  they  had  in  the  week  for 
recreation  and  enjoyment;  that  they  were 
kept  closely  confined  during  the  week,  and 
when  Sunday  came  they  felt  like  having  what 
they  term  '  a  good  time.'  Many  of  these 
young  men  spend  the  whole  day  in  the 
country,  hunting,  fishing,  boating,  playing 
ball,  etc.,  and  when  winter  deprives  them  of 
these  outdoor  amusements,  they  prefer  to  loaf 
around  the  waiting-room  of  some  hotel,  or, 
worse  still,  some  '  first-class '  bar-room  or 
billiard-hall,  rather  than  be  seen  at  church." 


24         The  Yotmg  Men  and  the  Churches. 

11  With  many  of  the  young  men  whom  I  know/* 
writes  another,  "  Sunday  is  the  '  day  off ' ;  the 
only  day  offering  opportunity  for  a  little 
variety  ;  the  only  day  to  see  people  ;  the  day 
of  rest.  To  sit  still  during  a  church  service 
is  not  the  rest  they  desire."  "Many,"  writes 
another,  "  who  are  busily  occupied  during  the 
remainder  of  the  week,  seek  on  Sunday  to 
indulge  in  rest  and  recreation  in  a  way  most 
satisfactory  to  themselves,  and  are  naturally 
disinclined  to  spend  the  heart  of  the  day  in 
church,  listening  to  the  denunciation  of  their 
weaknesses  and  frailties,  and  their  concomi- 
tant penalty  of  eternal  damnation."  Softly, 
good  sir  !  Are  you  not  letting  your  rhetoric 
run  away  with  you  now  ?  Is  that,  indeed, 
the  staple  of  what  young  men  would  hear  if 
they  went  to  church  nowadays  ?  Very  little 
of  that  sort  of  thing,  I  imagine.  "  Denuncia- 
tion of  their  weaknesses  and  frailties  ? "  O, 
no  :  I  do  not  think  we  are  apt  to  put  it  in 
that  way.  If  we  point  out  their  errors  and 
warn  them  of  their  perils,  I  am  sure  that  we 
do  it  with  the  sincerest  love  for  them,  and 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         25 

with  no  tone  of  bitterness  or  denunciation. 
But  this  is  only  a  slip  of  the  pen  ;  the  real 
point  made  is  that  many  young  men  prefer 
to  spend  Sunday  in  various  diversions  ;  they 
do  not  wish  to  devote  the  time  to  church 
attendance  and  worship.  The  need  of  recre- 
ation for  men  who  work  hard  all  the  week  — 
especially  of  outdoor  recreation  for  those 
whose  pursuits  are  sedentary  —  I  heartily  allow. 
And  I  trust  the  day  is  coming  when  one 
afternoon  or  part  of  an  afternoon  in  every 
week  will  be  devoted,  in  this  country  as  in 
England,  to  such  purposes.  The  business 
interests  of  the  country  would  not  suffer  in 
the  least  from  this  innovation.  The  bane  of 
our  industry  is  overproduction.  Most  of  our 
manufacturing  establishments  make  so  much 
more  than  they  can  sell  that  they  are  obliged 
to  close  up  for  long  periods.  This  is  the 
natural  and  inevitable  effect  of  the  employ- 
ment of  so  much  machinery.  It  would  be 
vastly  better  for  business,  better  for  the  health 
and  morals  of  the  people,  if  this  idle  time 
could  be  distributed  evenly  over  the  year, 


26         The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches, 

giving  weekly  space  for  recreation.  But  even 
if  this  result  should  not  be  reached  at  present, 
it  will  still  remain  a  serious  question  whether 
the  choice  made  by  these  young  men  is  a  wise 
choice.  That  their  bodies  need  refreshment 
and  their  minds  recreation,  I  allow  ;  but  would 
it  not  be  possible  to  obtain  all  of  these  that 
are  necessary  and  yet  save  the  religious  use 
of  Sunday  ?  It  all  comes  back  to  this  question, 
—  and  we  shall  be  driven  back  to  it,  again  and 
yet  again,  —  whether  we  have  not  other  and 
higher  interests  than  recreation  ;  whether  Sun- 
day is  not  the  time  for  attending  to  these 
interests ;  whether  we  may  not  gain,  by  a 
religious  use  of  Sunday,  greater  benefits  than 
we  obtain  by  this  merely  recreative  and  festal 
use  of  it. 

I  recall  a  little  experience  of  my  own, 
which  has  always  influenced  my  judgment  in 
this  matter.  For  a  time,  in  my  young  man- 
hood, I  devoted  my  Sundays  to  such  uses  as 
these  young  men  describe.  I  had  long  been 
required  to  attend  church  ;  I  found  myself  in 
a  large  village,  master  of  my  own  time  and 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         27 

movements,  and  I  concluded  that  I  had  had 
church  enough  to  last  me  for  some  time  ;  that 
I  would  try  giving  Sunday  to  rest  and  rec- 
reation. This  continued,  perhaps,  four  or  five 
months,  and  it  is  the  simple  fact  that  these 
were  the  dullest  and  dreariest  Sundays  that 
I  ever  spent.  They  are  the  days  of  my  life 
of  which  I  can  most  truthfully  say,  I  had  no 
pleasure  in  them.  And  I  greatly  doubt 
whether  the  young  men  of  this  city,  espe- 
cially those  who  were  reared  in  Christian 
households,  who  are  now  turning  their  backs 
on  the  churches  and  spending  their  Sundays 
according  to  the  plan  we  are  considering, 
are  really  having  a  good  time  after  all.  I 
do  not  believe  that  rumination  upon  these 
Sunday  hours  and  occupations  leaves  a  pleas- 
ant taste  in  the  mouth.  Even  if  no  vice  or 
excess  mar  the  reflection,  there  is  an  uneasy 
feeling  that  there  were  higher  uses  to  which 
the  time  ought  to  have  been  put. 

9.  One  young  man,  when  inquired  of,  ex- 
plained his  absence  from  church  by  saying  that, 
although  he  had  lived  in  Columbus  for  two 


28         The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

years,  no  one  had  invited  him  to  go.  This 
neglect  is  censurable ;  if,  as  he  says,  his  asso- 
ciates during  this  time  have  been  church-going 
people,  they  are  inexcusable  for  neglecting  to 
give  him  a  special  and  personal  invitation. 
But  I  think  he  is  somewhat  in  error  when  he 
says  that  he  has  never  been  invited.  Has  he 
not  heard  the  church-bells  ring  every  Sunday  ? 
What  do  they  signify  ?  Has  he  not  read  every 
Saturday  the  daily  newspapers  ?  In  them  he 
must  see  the  announcements  of  the  Sunday  ser- 
vices, followed  in  most  cases  by  such  statements 
as  these:  "The  public  is  cordially  invited." 
"  All  are  invited."  These  notices  are  printed 
by  the  churches  in  the  newspapers,  often  at 
considerable  cost,  for  the  especial  benefit  of 
persons  like  the  complainant.  And  when  we 
thus  send  forth  our  proclamations,  and  ring  our 
bells,  and  open  our  doors,  and  station  our 
politest  young  men  near  them,  to  greet  every- 
body who  comes,  and  show  him  a  seat,  I 
submit  that  it  is  a  little  less  than  gracious 
for  any  man  to  say  that  he  has  not  been 
invited. 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         29 

10.  A  reason  suggested  by  one  of  my  corre- 
spondents for  the  absence  of  young  men  from 
the  churches  may  best  be  stated  in  his  own 
vigorous  words  :  "  In  every  church,  so  far  as 
my  observation  has  gone,  there  exists  a  coterie 
(and  I  say  '  exists/  advisedly,  for  it  does  not 
live)  solely  for  the  purpose  of  driving  young 
men  to  desperation  whenever  they  get  on  the 
right  road."  Their  method  of  doing  this,  as 
my  friend  illustrates,  is  the  method  of  a  carping 
and  unsympathetic  criticism ;  they  are  too 
ready  to  pick  flaws  in  the  conduct  of  young 
men ;  to  regard  many  of  their  youthful  pranks 
as  mortal  sins,  and  their  boyish  tastes  as  clear 
evidence  of  an  unsanctified  heart.  That  such 
morose  and  exasperating  censors  of  youth  are 
sometimes  found  in  churches  is  true  ;  and  some 
have  been  driven  away  from  the  churches  by 
this  cause ;  but  there  is  far  less  of  this  than 
formerly ;  many  churches  can  be  found  in  which 
such  difficulties  scarcely  exist.  Ill-natured  and 
meddlesome  criticism  is  apt  to  be  encountered 
everywhere ;  the  churches  are  not  the  only 
places  in  which  it  finds  expression;  but  the 


30          The  Yoimg  Men  and  the  Churches. 

manly,  good-natured,  and  self-respecting  young 
man  need  not  be  greatly  troubled  by  it,  whether 
in  the  church  or  out  of  it. 

ii.  Another  class  of  absentees  is  thus  de- 
scribed :  "  Many  young  men,  in  times  of  univer- 
sal religious  excitement,  impelled  solely  by  the 
emotions  and  impulses  of  the  hour,  profess 
changes  of  sentiment  and  character  which  in 
the  nature  of  things  could  not  take  place. 
When  the  excitement  is  over  they  discover 
their  mistake ;  and,  though  often  continuing  the 
forms  of  religion  for  some  time,  at  last  give  up 
these,  and  a  sense  of  shame  keeps  them  there- 
after from  the  church. "  The  existence  of  this 
class  of  persons,  old  and  young,  in  the  com- 
munity is  a  phenomenon  that  I  have  not  over- 
looked. To  my  mind  it  is  one  of  the  saddest 
features  of  current  religious  history.  But  to 
all  such  victims  of  false  theory  in  religion  I 
would  say  :  The  fact  that  you  mistook  an  emo- 
tional excitation  for  the  religious  life  does  not 
prove  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  the  reli- 
gious life.  If  you  and  several  others  should 
start  for  Cincinnati  by  the  wrong  road,  and  after 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         3 1 

traveling  together  for  some  time  should  fail 
to  arrive  at  that  place,  your  experience  would 
not  prove  that  there  was  no  such  place  as 
Cincinnati,  nor  that  it  was  impossible  or  unde- 
sirable to  go  thither.  The  man  who  has  im- 
bibed the  idea  that  religion  consists  of  pleasur- 
able emotions  and  magical  changes  may  well 
rid  himself  of  that  idea  and  endeavor  to  obtain 
a  more  rational  and  practical  one  ;  but  he  is  no 
more  justified4  by  his  mistake  in  rejecting 
religion  altogether,  than  the  man  who  had  tried 
to  live  on  whipped  syllabub  and  had  not  been 
nourished  by  it  would  be  justified  in  refusing 
all  kinds  of  food. 

12.  One  gentleman  gives  it  as  his  judgment 
that  the  reason  of  the  failure  of  many  to  con- 
nect themselves  with  the  churches  is  a  certain 
natural  reticence  of  many  minds  with  respect 
to  the  expression  of  religious  thought  and  feeling. 
They  think  that  such  expressions  are  expected 
of  all  church  members  —  males  at  any  rate ; 
that  the  failure  "  to  offer  public  prayer,  or  relate 
personal  religious  experience  in  public,"  would 
be  regarded  as  an  evidence  of  a  want  of  piety ; 


32          The  Young  Men  and  tlie  Churches. 

and  they  therefore  hold  themselves  aloof  from 
the  church.  To  this  objection  I  should  say,  to 
begin  with,  that  no  church  ought  to  exact  any 
such  public  performance  as  a  condition  of 
membership.  Whatever  is  done  in  this  way 
ought  to  be  done  out  of  a  willing  heart.  In  the 
second  place,  the  relation  of  one's  "  personal 
experience "  is  not  by  any  means  the  only 
contribution  that  one  can  make  to  the  interest 
of  a  social  meeting.  There  are  many  truths  of 
religion,  and  many  subjects  in  which  the  church 
is  interested,  upon  which  one  can  freely  express 
himself,  without  any  violation  of  his  natural 
reticence  respecting  his  own  spiritual  state. 
And  the  conferences  of  Christians,  about  the 
truths  in  which  they  are  interested  and  the 
work  in  which  they  are  engaged,  ought  to  be 
so  free  and  informal  that  no  man  or  woman  who 
has  any  thoughts  should  find  any  difficulty  in 
uttering  them.  But  it  will  not  be  hard  for  any 
young  man  seeking  religious  associations  to 
find  a  church  in  which  the  taking  part  in  public 
services  of  this  nature  will  neither  be  denied 
him  nor  demanded  of  him ;  in  which  the  privi- 


The  Young  Men  and  tJie  Churches.         33 

lege  will  be  offered  him  of  speaking  when  he 
has  anything  to  say,  and  of  keeping  silent 
when  he  has  nothing  to  say.  That  the  diffi- 
culty we  are  here  considering  may  be  a  serious 
one  to  some  minds  is  possible ;  but  if  the  num- 
ber of  these  were  very  large  we  should  see  the 
young  men  deserting  those  churches  where  the 
members  sometimes  do  take  part  in  conference 
and  prayer  and  thronging  the  churches  where 
they  never  do.  The  movement  of  young  men 
in  this  direction  is  not,  in  my  observation,  so 
general  as  to  indicate  that  the  objection  in 
their  minds  is  one  of  great  importance. 

13.  One  of  my  correspondents  queries  wheth- 
er some  of  our  young  men  are  not  outside  the 
fellowship  of  the  church  because  we  have 
thrust  them  out  by  our  inadequate  theories 
respecting  the  church  membership  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Christian  parents.  They  ought  to  be 
trained  from  their  earliest  years,  he  thinks,  to 
regard  themselves  as  members  of  the  household 
of  Christ.  "  Every  impulse  of  the  little  one  for 
good/'  he  says,  "is  the  act  of  the  great,  warm 
heart  of  the  eternal  Father,  drawing  the  child 


34          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

to  himself.  Every  decision  of  its  mind  for  right 
against  wrong  is  in  the  work  of  its  salvation,  its 
conversion,  its  turning  to  God."  After  years 
of  such  experience,  under  Christian  training, 
the  boy  finds  that  he  is  outside  the  church,  and 
that  something  —  exactly  what,  he  does  not  know 
—  must  be  done  to  get  inside.  My  friend  thinks, 
and  I  agree  with  him,  that  this  is  a  bad  method ; 
that  our  Christian  nurture  ought  to  keep  the 
children  in  the  church,  instead  of  first  pushing 
them  out,  and  then  bringing  them  back. 

14.  Quite  a  number  of  these  letters  explain 
the  absence  of  many  young  men  from  church 
as  due  to  a  belief  entertained  by  them  that  the 
Christian  life  is  unmanly.  "  A  conviction  that 
church-going  is  an  indication  of  effeminacy  and 
childishness"  is  the  reason  suggested  by  one. 
"Some  are  under  the  false  impression,"  says 
another,  "  that  it  is  womanish  to  attend  church. 
Possibly,"  he  adds,  "these  persons  base  their 
opinion  on  the  fact  that  more  women  than  men 
attend  church,  but  that  is  also  true  of  literary 
and  musical  entertainments  of  a  high  order.  It 
has  been  very  noticeable  to  me  that  young  men 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.          3  5 

are  in  a  decided  minority  at  these  gatherings." 
This  cannot  be,  of  course,  because  literature  or 
art  are  peculiarly  womanish.  The  opinion  that 
the  Christian  life  is  in  any  sense  unmanly  is 
about  as  wide  of  the  mark  as  opinion  can  go. 
A  genuine  Christianity  neglects  no  element 
of  the  highest  manhood,  rejects  no  pleasure 
that  is  really  manly,  offers  the  fullest  scope 
to  every  manly  ambition.  It  is  that  which  is. 
beastly  in  us  that  Christianity  seeks  to  check 
and  exterminate,  not  that  which  is  manly. 
Many  of  these  young  men  are  turning  away 
from  the  Christian  life,  as  I  am  told,  because 
they  think  that  Christianity  will  rob  them  of 
their  pleasures.  There  are  many  diversions  and 
enjoyments  that  they  think  harmless,  that  they 
suppose  they  would  be  obliged  to  abandon  if 
they  entered  upon  the  Christian  life.  To  this 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  Christian  discipleship 
does  not  involve  the  abandonment  of  any  inno- 
cent enjoyment.  Any  diversion  that  you  can 
use  in  such  a  way  as  co  receive  pleasure  and 
benefit  from  it  yourself,  and  do  no  harm  to 
others,  you  are  perfectly  entitled  to  use,  if  you 


36          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

are  a  Christian;  and  any  diversion  that  you 
cannot  use  without  receiving  injury  for  yourself, 
or  doing  harm  to  others,  you  have  no  right  to 
use  whether  you  are  a  Christian  or  not. 

But  it  is  to  be  feared  that  some  of  those  who 
urge  this  objection  are  addicted  to  pleasures 
and  practices  that  they  know  are  wrong.  The 
reason  why  they  stay  away  from  the  churches 
is  obvious  enough.  Their  hearts  are  fully  set 
in  them  to  do  evil.  They  are  living  a  kind  of 
life  that  their  own  consciences  disapprove ;  and 
they  are  stifling  their  consciences,  and  giving 
loose  reign  to  their  appetites  or  their  selfish 
desires.  Now  the  last  place  to  which  a  man 
who  is  living  this  kind  of  life  wants  to  go  is  the 
church.  He  knows  that  the  conscience  which 
he  is  trying  to  silence  will  be  up  in  arms  if  he 
goes  there  ;  that  Scripture  and  song  and  sermon 
will  all  put  scourges  into  the  hand  of  conscience 
to  torment  him  withal,  and  he  consults  his  own 
comfort  by  staying  away.  I  am  bound  to  admit 
that  the  man  who  is  bent  on  doing  wrong  has  a 
very  natural  and  cogent  reason  —  not  a  good 
reason  —  for  not  wanting  to  attend  church,  and 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         37 

it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  absence  of  many  must 
be  explained  in  this  way.  There  are  those,  as 
one  of  my  correspondents  testifies,  who  "seem 
to  think  that  so  much  experience  in  the  darker 
phases  of  life  is  necessary  to  a  perfect  man- 
hood;  that  they  must  see  sin  in  all  its  forms 
and  various  stages  before  they  are  fitted  to  be 
strong  and  valiant  men.'*  While  they  are  going 
through  this  process  the  house  of  God  is  not  a 
welcome  resort  to  them.  For  the  young  man 
who  talks  in  that  way  does  not  deceive  himself. 
He  knows  that  the  slime  of  the  pit  is  over  all 
that  slippery  logic.  He  knows  that  he  is  not 
ministering  to  a  perfect  manhood  by  any  such 
brutal  indulgences.  He  knows  that  he  is  lying 
to  his  own  soul,  and  he  does  not  like  to  go 
where  the  lie  will  be  flung  back  in  his  teeth. 
The  reason  of  the  absence  of  some  of  our  young 
men  from  the  churches  is  quite  too  obvious. 

15.  A  large  number  of  those  who  stay  away 
from  church  justify  themselves  for  doing  so  on 
the  ground  of  the  inconsistency  or  hypocrisy 
of  the  members  of  the  church.  One  of  my  cor- 
respondents, reciting  the  reasons  that  he  hears 


38          The  Young  Men  and  the  CJmrches. 

young  men  give  for  holding  aloof  from  the 
churches,  mentions  "  a  belief  that  many  minis- 
ters do  not  believe  what  they  preach,"  and 
another  quotes  as  a  current  saying  that  "  minis- 
ters are  hypocrites."  To  those  who  make  this 
latter  sweeping  accusation  I  can  offer  no  reply 
except  to  ask  whether  it  is  not  a  rather  harsh 
judgment,  and  whether  their  acquaintance  with 
ministers  has  been  extensive  and  intimate 
enough  to  warrant  such  a  wholesale  condemna- 
tion. To  those  who  think  that  many  ministers 
do  not  believe  what  they  preach,  I  answer  that 
this  is  a  good  reason  for  refusing  to  listen  to 
ministers  of  this  class.  If  you  have  sufficient 
grounds  for  the  belief  that  any  minister  is  a' 
hypocrite  and  a  deceiver  of  the  people,  hear  not 
him !  But  the  belief  that  many  are  false  seems 
to  imply  that  some  are  true.  And  the  question 
before  us  is  not  why  you  refuse  to  hear  the  false 
ones :  that  needs  no  explanation  ;  it  is  why  you 
refuse  to  hear  the  true  ones.  There  are  many 
grocers,  probably,  in  your  city  who  sell  chicory 
for  coffee,  and  oleomargerine  for  butter ;  but 
there  are  some,  no  doubt,  who  sell  the  genuine 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Chzirches.         39 

Java  and  the  pure  butter.  Do  you  refuse  to 
buy  of  the  honest  grocer  because  the  dishonest 
grocer  cheats  you  ?  There  must  be  some  reli- 
gious teachers  in  your  vicinity  who  honestly 
endeavor  to  find  the  truth  on  these  great  themes, 
and  to  tell  it.  Why  do  you  not  seek  them  out 
and  hearken  to  their  words  ? 

But  it  is  not  the  ministers  alone  who  are 
thus  severely  judged.  The  members  of  the 
churches  are  exposed  to  the  same  censure. 
"  Others  think  that  many  church  members  are 
hypocrites,"  writes  one  of  my  friends.  "  Lack 
of  faith  in  religious  young  men  is  a  reason 
adduced  by  another.  "  There  are  many,"  writes 
another,  "  who  point  to  some  weak  brother  in 
the  church  who  has  made  some  mistake  or 
committed  some  sin,  and  excuse  themselves  by 
saying,  '  I  am  as  good  as  he.' "  This  is  the 
tenor  of  many  of  the  explanations  given.  If 
you  should  ask  these  objectors  to  give  you  the 
facts  on  which  they  base  their  judgment,  you 
would  find,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  that  it  is 
the  dishonesty  or  uncharity  of  some  one  or 
some  few  persons  that  has  led  them  to  turn 


4O         The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

their  backs  on  the  churches.  "Ah  uno  disce 
omnes  " — judge  all  by  one — is  the  rule  that 
they  are  all  the  while  applying,  and  it  is  about 
as  false  and  mischievous  a  maxim,  when  used  of 
human  beings,  as  was  ever  invented.  The  in- 
justice and  unreason  of  condemning  the  whole 
church  because  a  few  persons  in  it  behave 
badly  is  so  flagrant  that  he  who  resorts  to 
it  scarcely  deserves  our  patience. 

But  some  of  those  whose  reasons  are  reported 
to  me  boldly  say  that  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  people  of  the  churches  and  the 
people  outside  the  churches.  "  A  very  earnest 
and  sincere  young  man  "  is  reported  as  saying 
that  "when  he  looked  about  him  he  saw  very 
little  difference  in  respect  to  practical  every- 
day righteousness  between  the  church  member 
and  the  non-church-member."  So,  for  sub- 
stance, say  several.  And  one  young  man  is 
reported  as  going  a  little  further  and  declaring : 
"  My  reason  is  that  in  twenty  years'  dealing 
with  Christians  I  have  not  found  them  as 
honest  as  non-professors."  It  is  very  strange 
that  intelligent  people  should  talk  in  this  way. 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         41 

We  all  freely  admit,  and  sadly  deplore,  the  in- 
consistencies of  many  church  members.  None 
of  us  is  perfect ;  and  we  see  many  round  about 
us  whose  conduct  often  dishonors  their  profes- 
sion. And  we  are  ready  to  own  that  there  are 
many  persons  outside  the  church  who  are  as 
good  in  every  respect  as  many  that  are  within 
the  church,  and  better  far  than  some.  But  to 
say  that,  taking  church  members  as  a  class  and 
non-church-members  as  a  class,  the  one  class  is 
morally  no  better  than  the  other,  is  to  make  a 
statement  utterly  at  war  with  the  most  obvious 
facts.  Here  are  a  few  simple  tests  that  it  is 
easy  to  apply  :  Are  there  as  many  church  mem- 
bers as  non-church-members  in  the  peniten- 
tiaries ?  Are  there  as  many  church  members 
as  non-church-members  among  the  persons 
arraigned  day  by  day  in  the  police-courts  ?  Are 
there  as  many  church  members  as  non-church- 
members  among  the  saloon-keepers  and  the 
gamblers  and  the  prostitutes  of  the  cities  ? 
Were  there,  think  you,  as  many  church  mem- 
bers as  non-church-members  in  the  Cincinnati 
mob  ?  Taking  the  disorderly,  the  vicious,  the 


42          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

dangerous  classes  of  the  country  together,  do 
you  think  there  are  as  many  church  members 
as  non-church-members  among  them  ?  I  will 
not  insult  you  by  offering  you  figures  ;  I  simply 
ask  you  what  your  own  opinion  is.  On  the 
other  hand,  take  any  representative  body  of 
men  and  women  whose  purpose  is  purely  un- 
selfish and  philanthropic  —  such  a  body  as  the 
Prison  Reform  Association,  or  the  Charities 
Aid  Association  of  New  York — and  what  would 
the  proportion  be  ?  These  are  not  religious 
organizations  :  their  object  is  wholly  humanita- 
rian and  patriotic ;  and  yet  you  will  find  that  a 
large  majority  of  the  men  and  women  at  work 
in  them  are  members  of  the  churches.  Take 
the  relief  society  of  your  town  or  city,  the 
society  that  cares  for  the  poor ;  it  is  not  in  any 
sense  religious,  but  what  proportion  of  its  active 
members  are  members  of  the  churches  ?  Put- 
ting aside  all  the  foreign  missionary  work,  if 
you  insist,  as  fanatical  and  quixotic  —  the  great 
bulk  of  all  the  benevolent  work  of  our  towns 
and  cities,  the  hand-to-hand  work  with  the 
heathen  at  home,  is  done  by  the  members  of 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         43 

our  churches.  There  are  excellent,  charitable 
people  outside  the  churches  ;  I  do  not  overlook 
or  disparage  their  goodness  ;  but  the  fact 
remains  as  I  have  stated  it.  And  when  any 
attempt  is  made  to  secure  an  improvement  of 
public  morals,  or  an  enforcement  of  the  laws, 
will  you  find  the  church  members  or  the  non- 
church-members  enlisting  in  stronger  force? 
Take  a  movement  like  the  Citizens'  League  of 
Chicago,  or  the  Law  and  Order  League  of  Bos- 
ton, —  whose  main  purpose  is  the  prevention  of 
the  sale  of  liquor  to  minors,  —  in  what  propor- 
tion do  you  find  church  members  and  non- 
church-members  among  its  active  promoters? 
In  short,  whenever  any  call  is  made  upon  the 
intelligence,  the  integrity,  the  moral  courage, 
the  philanthropy,  of  the  community,  the  great 
majority  of  the  volunteers  always  come  from 
the  churches  ;  and  whenever  any  disorderly  and 
destructive  work  is  to  be  done  in  society,  the 
great  majority  of  the  disturbers  and  destroyers 
always  come  from  the  ranks  of  the  non-church- 
goers. I  am  not  saying  that  most  non-church- 
goers are  criminals,  but  that  most  criminals  are 


44         The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

non-churchgoers.  I  do  not  affirm  that  all 
churchgoers  are  philanthropists,  but  that  most 
philanthropists  are  churchgoers.  There  are 
many  unworthy  people  in  the  churches,  and 
must  be ;  there  are  many  worthy  people  out- 
side the  churches  ;  but  to  compare  the  two 
classes,  and  say  that  there  is  no  difference  be- 
tween them,  —  that  the  average  integrity  and 
purity  and  charity  of  the  people  inside  the 
churches  is  no  better  than  that  of  the  people 
outside,  —  is  to  manifest  a  deplorable  ignorance 
or  a  pitiful  bigotry.  It  is  a  common  saying ; 
but  I  trust  the  young  men  who  read  these 
pages  will  value  their  own  reputation  for  good 
judgment  too  highly  to  repeat  it.  And  he  who 
gives  this  as  the  reason  for  refusing  to  attend 
church  shows  about  as  much  sense  as  the  man 
who  should  refuse  the  daily  ablution  in  water, 
on  the  alleged  ground  that  those  who  bathe 
are  no  cleanlier  than  those  who  do  not. 

16.  I  come  now  to  a  class  of  objections  which 
are  radical  in  this  respect,  that  they  strike 
at  the  roots  of  faith.  If  they  are  valid,  our 
churches  are  seminaries  of  ignorance  and  super- 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         45 

stition,  and  you  ought  not  only  to  refuse  to 
attend  them,  but  to  join  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  the 
crusade  which  he  is  preaching  for  their  extinc- 
tion. 

These  objections,  in  their  crudest  form,  are 
presented  by  some  who  offer  very  few  rea- 
sons for  their  rejection  of  Christian  truth,  but 
who  put  it  aside  with  the  air  of  the  bravado, 
as  one  of  my  correspondents  expresses  it,  with 
a  simply  contemptuous  sneer  at  it,  as  unworthy 
of  their  attention.  That  "  infidelity  shows  inde- 
pendence," and  that  "  Ingersollism  is  manly," 
are  put  down  in  one  of  these  letters  as  two 
articles  in  the  creed  of  a  class  of  young  men 
with  whom  he  meets.  Another  describes  the 
same  class  as  those  who  "think  it  the  thing  to 
be  sceptical,  you  know."  "Don't  believe  in 
the  doctrine,"  answers  one  for  himself.  "  Don't 
believe  in  the  whole  plan,  and  think  the  whole 
thing  a  sell,"  replies  another.  To  this  class  of 
objectors  there  is  not  much  to  say,  except  that 
it  is  hard  to  understand  why  it  should  be 
thought  manly  to  reject  a  religion  whose  main 
purpose  is  to  help  us  in  keeping  the  body  under, 


46          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

in  speaking  the  thing  that  is  true,  and  in  doing 
to  others  as  we  would  have  them  do  to  us.  The 
fellow  who  is  getting  away  from  this  sort  of 
thing  is  not,  probably,  growing  manly.  He  is 
more  likely  to  be  growing  brutish  or  devilish. 
One  of  my  correspondents,  a  close  observer, 
speaking  of  those  who  have  "  drifted  into  a  kind 
of  life  that  finds  its  chief  enjoyment  in  frequent- 
ing saloons  and  other  haunts  of  vice,"  says  that 
they  "  are  antagonistic  in  a  remarkable  degree 
to  religion,  and  to  people  who  profess  Christi- 
anity ;  the  very  name  of  Christ  and  mention  of 
his  church  and  work  causes  them  to  sneer  and 
scoff." 

But  I  am  far  from  wishing  to  insinuate  that 
all  those  who  are  inclined  to  reject  Christianity 
manifest  this  unreasoning  temper,  or  make  their 
doubt  the  screen  of  their  depravity.  There  are 
hypocrites  in  the  church,  who  cloak  their  ini- 
quity under  their  belief;  and  there  are  hypocrites 
outside  the  church  who  make  their  unbelief 
a  cover  for  their  iniquity.  Neither  of  these 
classes  is  entitled  to  any  respect.  But  there 
are  also  honest  believers  within  the  church, 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         47 

and  honest  unbelievers  without,  and  it  is  with 
these  last  that  we  have  now  to  do. 

One  of  my  correspondents,  in  giving  the  rea- 
sons why  some  young  men  absent  themselves 
from  the  churches,  mentions  "an  impression/' 
entertained  by  some,  "that  a  religion,  or  code 
of  spiritual  faith,  founded  by  shepherds  and 
fishermen  in  a  semi-barbarous  province  of  Rome, 
twenty  centuries  ago,  that  was  not  thought 
worth  mentioning  in  the  history  of  those  times, 
and  that  failed  to  make  any  impression  on  the 
civilization  of  the  world  then,  is  hardly  suitable 
for  the  civilization  of  the  young  American  of 
the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century."  My 
correspondent  very  properly  describes  this  as 
"an  impression";  he  might  have  added  that 
it  is  a  very  unsubstantial  and  erroneous  impres- 
sion. It  begs  the  whole  question  at  the  start, 
as  to  the  founding  of  Christianity;  the  asser- 
tion that  it  was  founded  by  shepherds  and 
fishermen  is  not  an  indisputable  fact.  More- 
over, the  notion  about  the  early  insignificance 
of  Christianity  betrays  a  vast  misconception. 
That  the  beginnings  of  Christianity  were 


48          The  Voting  Men  and  the  Churches. 

humble  and  noiseless  is  most  true ;  so  it  is  with 
all  life,  and  the  noblest  growths  are  generally 
the  feeblest  in  their  beginnings.  The  founder  of 
Christianity  predicted  its  course  in  the  parables 
of  the  mustard  seed  and  the  leaven.  But  no 
historical  movement  is  more  clearly  marked 
than  the  sure  and  steady  progress  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith  from  the  time  of  the  death  of  Christ. 
Its  missionaries  went  forth,  sprinkling  Western 
Asia  with  little  groups  of  confessors  ;  lifting  up 
the  Christian  standards  in  every  great  centre  of 
learning  or  commerce ;  unfurling  the  banner  of 
the  cross  on  the  Acropolis  at  Athens,  and  in 
the  marts  of  Corinth  and  Ephesus  and  Thessa- 
lonica  ;  gaining  speedily  a  firm  foothold  for  their 
faith  in  the  Eternal  City.  Within  three  cen- 
turies from  the  death  of  Christ  Rome  itself  was 
under  the  sway  of  His  religion.  The  historian 
Gibbon  was  no  friend  of  Christianity,  yet  he 
devotes  a  famous  chapter  to  its  progress  and 
establishment  in  the  Roman  Empire:  "an 
inquiry,"  as  he  says,  which  "may  be  considered 
a  very  essential  part  of  the  history  of  that  empire'' 
"While  that  great  body/'  I  am  now  quoting 


TJie  Young  Men  and  the  ChurcJies.         49 

Gibbon,  "was  invaded  by  open  violence,  or 
undermined  by  slow  decay,  a  pure  and  humble 
religion  gently  insinuated  itself  into  the  minds 
of  men,  grew  up  in  silence  and  obscurity, 
derived  new  vigor  from  opposition,  and  finally 
erected  the  triumphant  banner  of  the  cross  on 
the  ruins  of  the  Capitol."  *  There  is  the  fact ;  it 
is  a  tremendous  fact.  That  Christianity  should 
have  pushed  itself  in  so  short  a  time  into  the 
centre  of  the  world's  civilization,  and  taken  pos- 
session of  it ;  that  it  should  have  grappled  with 
the  philosophy  and  the  heathenism  of  the 
empire,  and  proved  itself  more  than  a  match  for 
both ;  that  it  should  have  fought  the  gladiatorial 
shows  and  conquered  them  ;  that  it  should  have 
practically  put  an  end  to  the  exposure  of  infants 
and  many  other  age-long  barbarisms ;  that  it 
should  have  traveled  swiftly  west  through 
Europe  and  spread  itself  over  Gaul  and  His- 
pania,  and  even  Britain,  at  this  early  day,  shows 
a  system  not  lacking  in  vigor,  not  altogether 
insignificant  as  a  historical  force. 

Let  me  bring  you  another  witness.     Ernest 

*  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  vol.  i,  chap,  xv,  p.  504. 


50          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

Renan  is  a  sceptical  writer,  well  berated  in 
orthodox  pulpits.  You  cannot  suspect  him  of 
any  bias  in  favor  of  Christianity ;  but  Ernest 
Renan  is  a  student  of  history,  and  this  is  what 
he  says :  — 

"  In  the  midst  of  the  enormous  ferment  in 
which  the  Jewish  nation  was  plunged  under  the 
last  Asmoneans,  there  took  place  in  Galilee  the 
most  wonderful  moral  event  which  history  has 
ever  recorded.  A  matchless  man  —  so  grand, 
that,  although  here  all  must  be  judged  from  a 
purely  scientific  point  of  view,  I  would  not  gain- 
say those  who,  struck  with  the  exceptional 
character  of  his  work,  call  him  God  —  effected 
a  reform  in  Judaism  :  a  reform  so  radical,  so 
thorough,  that  it  was  in  all  respects  a  complete 
creation.  .  .  .  Jesus  [not  shepherds  and  fisher- 
men] founded  the  eternal  religion  of  humanity, 
the  religion  of  the  soul,  stripped  of  everything 
sacerdotal,  of  creed,  of  external  ceremonies, 
accessible  to  every  race,  superior  to  all  castes, 
in  a  word  absolute.  The  vital  centre  was  es- 
tablished to  which  humanity  must  for  centuries 
refer  its  hopes,  its  consolations,  its  motives  for 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         5 1 

well-doing.  The  most  copious  source  of  virtue 
that  the  sympathetic  touch  of  a  sublime  con- 
science ever  caused  to  well  up  in  the  heart 
of  a  man  was  opened.  The  lofty  thought  of 
Jesus,  hardly  comprehended  by  his  disciples, 
suffered  many  lapses.  .  .  .  Christianity,  notwith- 
standing, prevailed  from  the  first,  and  prevailed 
supremely  over  other  existing  religions."  *  I 
could  extend  this  quotation,  but  this  will  suffice. 
Is  it  not  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  objection  we 
are  considering?  Our  objector  thinks  that  the; 
advent  of  the  Christian  religion  was  an  ob- 
scure and  insignificant  fact.  Renan  says  it  was, 
"  the  most  wonderful  moral  event  which  history 
has  recorded."  Our  objector  thinks  it  made  no 
impression  on  the  world.  Renan  declares  that 
it  "  prevailed  from  the  very  first,  and  prevailed 
supremely  over  other  existing  religions."  Will 
you  let  me  say  to  you,  young  gentlemen,  that  if 
you  will  study  faithfully  the  history  of  the 
origin  and  growth  of  the  Christian  religion,  you 
will  very  quickly  get  rid  of  the  impression  that 
it  was  ever  a  contemptible  factor  in  the  world's 

*  Religious  History  and  Criticism,  p.  161. 


52          The  Young  Men  and  the  C/iurckes. 

life ;  and  you  will  see  some  reasons  for  believing 
that  even  "the  young  American  of  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century'*  can  well  afford 
to  treat  it  with  entire  respect. 

"There  is  a  class,"  writes  one  of  my  most 
valued  correspondents,  "  a  growing  class  of 
young  men  who  hold  aloof  from  the  churches  be- 
cause they  cannot  conscientiously  indorse  their 
fundamental  ideas,  or  subscribe  to  much  of  their 
teachings.  This  class  comprises  our  most  earnest 
and  intellectual  young  men.  It  is  not  through 
carelessness  or  indifference  that  these  young 
men  are  not  professors  of  what  the  world  calls 
religion,  and  have  little  or  no  sympathy  with 
much  that  passes  under  that  name.  As  a  rule/ 
they  are  those  who  have  thoughtfully,  earnestly, 
reverently  studied  the  problem  of  life.  They 
are  sceptical  regarding  old  traditions,  creeds, 
doctrines,  formulas,  but  they  are  not  sceptical 
regarding  truth  and  virtue.  Among  this  class 
of  young  men  I  find  the  brightest  examples 
of  strict  integrity  and  untarnished  purity  in 
thought,  word,  and  deed." 

I    accept    this    description    as     substantially 


The  Young  Men  and  tJie  Churches.         5  3 

accurate,  except  that  I  would  say :  "  This  class 
comprises  some  of  our  most  earnest  and  intel- 
lectual young  men."  I  do  not  think  that  all  the 
young  men  possessing  these  qualities  belong  in 
this  class. 

Of  the  same  tenor  is  another  long  and  very 
interesting  letter,  in  which  the  writer,  who  does 
not  sign  his  name,  gives  me  a  full  and  vivid,  but 
rather  sad,  account  of  his  own  religious  history. 
"Between  the  lines,"  he  writes,  "you  will 
notice  that  doubt  and  disbelief  in  religious 
doctrines  are  the  chief  causes  for  my  non- 
attendance  upon  church.  What  I  have  said 
will  show  that  lack  of  faith,  such  as  is  neces- 
sary for  conscientious  and  true  Christianity, 
is  the  great  underlying  cause,  upon  which  are 
piled  indifference,  inertia,  inaction." 

To  such  young  men  as  these  I  have  no  words 
of  complaint  or  criticism  to  speak.  Of  course 
either  they  are  wofully  mistaken,  or  I  am, 
respecting  this  Christian  faith.  They  may 
have  studied  these  questions  as  candidly  as  I 
have ;  they  may  be  just  as  honest  in  their  con- 
clusions as  I  am  in  mine.  That  I  shall  assume. 


54         The  Voting  Men  and  the  Churches. 

But,  inasmuch  as  they  have  frankly  opened 
their  hearts  to  me,  I  will  offer  them  a  sugges- 
tion or  two,  which  I  am  sure  they  will  receive 
in  all  kindness. 

First.  Do  not  too  hastily  conclude  that  this 
Christian  faith  is  an  effete  superstition.  I  trust 
I  have  given  you  some  reasons  for  believing 
that  it  was  in  the  beginning,  and  is  now,  a 
great  power  in  the  world.  It  is  worthy  of 
your  study. 

Second.  Study  it  broadly,  historically,  as  a 
great  world-fact.  Too  many  people  begin  with 
a  logical  analysis  of  particular  doctrines.  That 
is  like  studying  astronomy  with  a  microscope 
or  measuring  the  ocean  with  a  thimble.  You 
never  can  comprehend  what  Christianity  is  till 
you  trace  its  course  through  the  centuries,  till 
you  mark  its  outline  on  the  map  of  the  world, 
till  you  try  to  estimate  the  influences  that  have 
sprung  from  its  life  in  the  literature  and  laws 
and  institutions  of  Christendom. 

Third.  Beware  —  may  I  say  it  ?  —  of  big- 
otry. For  then  there  is  a  bigotry  of  unbelief 
that  is  quite  as  common  as  the  bigotry  of  faith, 
and  not  a  bit  lovelier. 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         5  5 

Fourth.  Be  careful  lest  you  identify  Chris- 
tianity with  what  is  no  part  of  Christianity,  and 
reject  it  because  of  outworn  garments  of  phi- 
losophy which  it  once  wore,  but  has  now  cast 
off.  There  has  been  steady  progress  in  Chris- 
tian philosophy  from  the  earliest  days ;  the  forms 
of  statement  change  greatly  from  age  to  age ; 
and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  ideas  over  which 
you  stumble  are  not  Christian  ideas  at  all. 

Fifth.  Is  it  not  possible  for  you  to  find  some 
body  of  Christian  people,  between  whom  and 
yourself  there  may  be  many  points  of  sympathy  ? 
and  to  unite  with  them  in  so  much  of  their 
work  as  you  conscientiously  approve?  You 
believe,  I  trust,  that  the  main  object  of  these 
churches  is  a  good  one.  You  do  not  doubt  that 
they  are  honestly  trying  to  promote  goodness 
in  the  world.  You  do  not  believe  all  that  some 
of  them  do  ;  but  are  not  your  agreements  with 
them,  after  all,  more  numerous  and  more  fun- 
damental than  your  disagreements  ?  and  may 
you  not  receive  some  benefit  for  yourself,  and 
give  them  some  aid  also,  by  ignoring  your 
differences  and  walking  with  them  as  far  as 


56         The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

you  are  agreed  ?  Some  of  you  stay  away  from 
the  churches  and  maintain  toward  them  a 
rather  unsympathetic,  if  not  unfriendly,  attitude 
because  you  do  not  agree  with  them  in  certain 
points  of  belief.  If  we  gave  you  the  cold 
shoulder  because  you  do  not  believe  some 
things  that  we  believe,  you  would  call  it  bigotry, 
would  you  not  ?  If  you  give  us  the  cold 
shoulder  for  exactly  the  same  reason,  what 
shall  we  call  it  ?  There  is  no  need  of  any 
doubtful  disputations  between  us ;  but  we  shall 
all  be  better  if  we  magnify  our  agreements  and 
put  aside  our  differences,  and  join  heartily  in 
working  along  the  lines  that  are  common  to 
us  —  in  building  up  in  the  world  the  kingdom 
of  righteousness  and  peace. 

17.  Thus  far  our  argument  has  been  mainly 
negative.  We  have  been  trying  to  show  that 
the  reasons  given  for  staying  away  from  church 
are  not  good  reasons.  But  there  is  a  class  that 
is  not  yet  reached.  Quite  a  number  of  these 
letters  make  answer  that  in  many  cases  the 
reason  is  simple  indifference,  or  indifference 
coupled  with  habit.  These  young  men  have 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         57 

formed  the  habit  of  staying  at  home;  having 
formed  the  habit,  they  have  come  to  regard  the 
whole  matter  with  indifference.  And  with 
some  of  them  there  is  not  only  a  lack  of 
interest,  but  a  doubt  as  to  the  utility  of  the 
practice.  "  Cui  bono?"  some  of  them  ask. 
What  is  the  good  of  going  to  church,  anyway  ? 
What  benefits  should  I  derive  from  the  service 
if  I  should  go  ?  This  is  the  point  to  which 
I  now  wish  to  speak. 

First.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  go  to  church 
regularly  every  Sunday  as  a  mere  drill  in  exter- 
nal decencies  and  proprieties.  To  make  your- 
self clean  and  presentable,  to  walk  quietly  to 
the  place  of  worship  and  sit  decorously  and 
attentively  through  the  service,  is,  to  many  of 
you,  a  good  exercise.  One  of  the  things  this 
noisy,  bustling  generation  most  needs  to  learn 
is  how  to  be  quiet.  And  about  the  only  chance 
that  a  good  many  have  of  learning  it  is  the 
hour  or  two  a  week  that  they  spend  in  church. 

Second.  The  service,  if  orderly  and  beauti- 
ful, as  it  should  be,  should  afford  to  a  refined 
taste  some  pleasure.  There  is  no  purer  English, 


58          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

no  nobler  rhetoric  than  that  which  you  will 
hear  when  the  Bible  is  read ;  the  hymns  of  the 
church  are  full  of  lofty  poetry ;  and  the  grand- 
est music  always  has  been,  and  always  will 
be,  church  music. 

Third.  To  identify  yourself  with  the  best 
people  in  the  community,  and  to  spend  an 
hour  or  two  every  week  in  their  company,  will 
increase  your  self-respect,  and  benefit  you  in 
many  ways. 

Fourth.  The  intellectual  stimulus  is  not 
to  be  despised.  I  will  not  venture  on  any  state- 
ment of  my  own  respecting  this  matter ;  let 
me  quote  what  Dr.  Holland  says  in  one  of  his 
"  Letters  to  the  Joneses."  He  is  talking  to 
a  mechanic  about  church-going.  "I  tell  you 
that  if  you  suppose  the  American  pulpit  to  be 
contemptible,  you  are  very  much  mistaken. 
You  have  stayed  away  from  it  for  ten  years. 
During  all  these  ten  years  I  have  attended 
upon  its  ministrations,  and  I  have  a  better  right 
than  you  have  to  speak  about  it,  because  I 
know  more  about  it.  I  tell  you  that  I  have 
received,  during  these  ten  years,  more  intellect- 


TJie  Yoimg  Men  and  tiie  Churches.          5  9 

ual  nourishment  and  stimulus  from  the  pulpit 
than  from  all  other  sources  combined ;  yet  my 
every-day  pursuits  are  literary,  while  yours  are 
not." 

Fifth.  But  these  are  superficial  reasons. 
The  real  reason  for  going  to  church  is  that  you 
are  a  moral  and  spiritual  being,  and  that  the 
church  offers  you  an  opportunity  for  the  nur- 
ture and  training  of  your  moral  and  spiritual 
faculties. 

You  are  a  moral  being.  You  distinguish 
between  right  and  wrong ;  between  veracity 
and  falsehood ;  between  purity  and  impurity ; 
between  honesty  and  dishonesty ;  between  self- 
control  and  self-indulgence;  between  cruelty 
and  kindness ;  between  avarice  and  benevo- 
lence. You  know  that  you  ought  always  to 
choose  and  follow  the  right,  yet  you  often  find 
yourself  weak  in  the  presence  of  temptation 
to  do  wrong.  You  know,  too,  that  one  of  your 
deepest  needs  is  to  have  your  moral  sense 
quickened  and  your  moral  vigor  increased. 
Through  your  every-day  contact  with  men  this 
need  is  not  supplied.  Instead  of  having  your  , 


60          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

conscience  educated  and  directed  by  your 
daily  associations,  you  often  discover  that  it 
is  being  sophisticated  and  perverted.  The 
effect  of  the  life  in  which  you  mingle  is  to 
lower  your  standards  and  break  down  your 
principles.  To  preserve  your  moral  nature 
from  detriment  and  spoliation,  and  to  keep  it 
sound  and  whole,  you  need  often  to  surround 
yourself  with  the  atmosphere  of  a  high  morality, 
an  ideal  morality ;  to  go  where  the  perfect 
standard  will  be  lifted  up,  and  your  noblest 
sentiments  and  impulses  will  be  aroused,  and 
the  shining  heights  of  purity  and  integrity  will 
attract  your  vision.  And  that  will  be  done  for 
you,  more  or  less  perfectly,  by  the  services  of 
the  church — by  the  Scriptures  that  are  read, 
by  the  hymns  that  are  sung,  by  the  prayers  that 
are  offered,  by  the  sermon  that  is  preached. 
Whatever  else  you  may  say  of  the  church  and 
its  services,  the  things  that  men  are  led  to 
think  of  at  church  are  the  things  that  are 
honorable,  and  just,  and  pure,  and  lovely,  and 
of  good  report.  And,  whoever  you  are,  and 
whatever  the  manner  of  your  daily  life  may 


The  Young  Men  and  tJie  Churches.         6 1 

be,  I  know  that  you  need  to  think  of  these 
things,  and  to  gain  strength  by  thinking  of 
them  for  a  pure  and  manly  life. 

But  you  are  a  spiritual  being,  as  well  as  a 
moral  being.  By  this  I  mean  that  you  have 
a  religious  nature ;  that  you  are  made,  not  only 
to  think  true  thoughts  and  do  right  deeds,  but 
to  adore  and  worship  God.  This  religious 
nature  of  yours  is  the  noblest  part  of  you.  It 
is  what  makes  you  a  man.  Like  every  other 
part  of  your  nature,  it  needs  its  proper  nutri- 
ment. Just  as  your  body  must  have  food,  just 
as  your  mind  must  have  truth,  just  as  your 
social  affections  must  have  love,  so  your  reli- 
gious nature  must  have  communion  with  God. 
Or,  to  put  it  in  the  terms  of  science,  as  Pro- 
fessor Drummond  has  so  strikingly  done  in  his 
"Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual  World,"  a  man 
lives  by  correspondence  with  his  environment. 
His  body  lives  by  entering  into  vital  relations 
with  the  physical  world.  If  there  were  no  solid 
earth  for  it  to  rest  on,  no  air  for  it  to  breathe, 
no  food  for  it  to  eat,  it  could  not  exist.  His 
mind,  likewise,  lives  by  entering  into  vital 


62          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

relations  with  the  world  of  truth.  A  knower 
implies  something  knowable.  If  there  were 
nothing  to  know,  the  thinking  principle  would 
collapse  and  vanish.  His  social  nature,  also, 
enters  into  living  relations  with  his  kind.  A 
lover  implies  some  one  to  love.  The  affections 
would  shrivel  and  decay  if  there  were  not 
human  hearts  to  receive  and  return  their 
largess.  In  all  these  cases  one  of  these  cor- 
relatives implies  the  other.  The  lungs  imply 
air ;  the  digestive  apparatus  implies  food ;  the 
intelligence  implies  knowledge ;  the  affections 
imply  objects  of  affection.  Well  now  go  on  with 
the  argument.  That  you  are  a  religious  being 
by  nature  is  just  exactly  as  plain  as  that  you 
are  a  physical  being,  or  an  intellectual  being,  or 
a  social  being.  Worship,  adoration,  prayer,  are 
facts  of  the  human  nature  precisely  as  certain 
as  digestion  or  filial  love.  Has  this  part  of 
your  nature  no  correlative  ?  Do  your  religious 
faculties  exist  without  an  environment  ?  That 
is  scientifically  absurd  and  impossible.  Just  as 
the  lungs  imply  air,  just  as  the  knower  implies 
a  knowable,  just  as  the  lover  implies  beings  to 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         63 

be  loved,  so  the  worshiper  implies  an  Object 
of  worship.  And  just  as  all  these  other  parts 
of  our  nature  only  thrive  when  they  are  kept 
in  close  and  vital  correspondence  with  their 
environment,  so  the  religious  nature  only 
thrives  when  it  is  kept  in  close  and  vital  corre- 
spondence with  its  environment,  which  is  God. 
This  argument,  drawn  from  the  principle  of 
correlation,  for  the  existence  of  an  object  of 
worship,  is  to  my  mind  conclusive.  But  if  you 
want  any  confirmation  of  this  truth,  let  me  give 
it  to  you  in  the  words  of  the  great  philosopher 
of  evolution,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer.  In  an 
article  published  only  four  months  ago,*  Mr. 
Spencer  has  expressed  himself  with  reference 
to  the  existence  of  this  Object  of  worship  in 
language  almost  startling  in  its  clearness  and 
vigor.  It  is  true  that  he  insists  that  we  can 
have  no  knowledge  of  the  mode  of  the  divine 
existence ;  the  Power  behind  phenomenon  is 
incomprehensible  to  our  thought ;  the  language 
which  men  apply  to  Him  is,  in  Spencer's  view, 
often  extravagant  and  absurd.  Nevertheless, 

*  Popular  Science  Monthly,  August,  1884. 


64          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

that  there  is  behind  all  the  forces  of  nature  a 
Power  from  which  they  all  proceed,  and  on 
which  they  all  depend,  is,  he  says,  the  most  cer- 
tain of  all  facts.  Let  me  give  you  his  words : 
"While  the  Power  which  transcends  phenomena 
cannot  be  brought  within  the  forms  of  our 
finite  thought,  yet,  as  being  a  necessary  datum 
of  every  thought,  belief  in  its  existence  has 
among  our  beliefs  the  highest  validity  of  any." 
And  again :  "  Though  the  nature  of  the 
Reality  transcending  appearances  cannot  be 
known,  yet  its  existence  is  necessarily  implied 
by  all  we  do  know.  Though  no  conception 
of  this  Reality  can  be  framed  by  us,  yet  an 
indestructible  consciousness  of  it  is  the  very 
basis  of  our  intelligence."  And  still  again: 
"  I  held  at  the  outset,  and  continue  to  hold, 
that  the  Inscrutable  Existence  which  science, 
in  the  last  resort,  is  compelled  to  recognize 
as  unreached  by  its  deepest  analysis  of  matter, 
motion,  thought,  and  feeling,  stands  toward 
our  general  conception  of  things  in  substan- 
tially the  same  relation  as  does  the  Creative 
Power  asserted  by  theology."  And  yet  once 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         65 

more  :  "  When  implying  that  the  Infinite  and 
Eternal  Energy,  manifested  alike  within  us  and 
without  us,  and  to  which  we  must  ascribe  not 
only  the  manifestations  themselves,  but  the  law 
of  their  order,  will  hereafter  continue  to  be, 
under  its  transfigured  form,  an  object  of  reli- 
gious sentiment,  I  have  implied  that  whatever 
components  of  this  sentiment  disappear  there 
must  ever  survive  those  which  are  appropriate 
to  the  consciousness  of  a  Mystery  that  cannot 
be  fathomed,  and  a  Power  that  is  omnipresent/' 
That  is  the  very  last  word  of  the  evolutionist 
philosophy,  from  the  lips  of  its  greatest  teacher. 
Mr.  Spencer  leaves  much  unsaid  that  some  of 
us  would  say.  There  are  ways  of  knowing 
about  the  Power  of  which  he  speaks  that  he 
does  not  recognize ;  nevertheless,  if  what  he 
says  is  true,  then  it  is  plain  that  the  religious 
nature  of  man  is  not  without  its  proper  environ- 
ment ;  that  the  faith  faculty  has  its  correlative ; 
that  worship  is  natural  to  man,  and  that  it  is 
the  most  sublimely  rational  act  that  a  human 
being  can  perform.  The  house  of  worship  is, 
then,  the  place  to  which  a  rational  human 


66          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

being  would  naturally  betake  himself.  When 
he  goes  thither  he  follows  one  of  the  noblest 
impulses  of  his  nature.  When  he  studies  rev- 
erently the  great  problems  of  his  spiritual  life 
he  is  engaged  in  the  highest  pursuit  that  can 
occupy  his  mind,  and  when  he  lifts  up  his 
thought  and  his  desire  in  adoration  and  suppli- 
cation to  that  Infinite  and  Eternal  Power,  from 
whom  his  life  and  all  other  life  proceeds,  he  is 
seeking  for  the  supply  of  the  deepest  want  of 
his  being. 

But  some  may  say :  "  We  recognize  the  need 
of  worship,  but  we  prefer  to  worship  by  our- 
selves." It  is  true  that  there  are  certain  acts 
of  worship  that  can  be  performed  in  solitude ; 
the  devout  soul  can  find  God  anywhere ;  but  it 
is  not  less  true  that  the  highest  benefits  of 
worship  are  gained  through  the  commingling  of 
our  prayers  and  our  praises  in  social  worship. 
Our  sympathy  with  men  and  our  reverence  for 
God  must  always  be  interfused  and  blended; 
we  cannot  part  them  without  distorting  both. 
"  As  no  class  can  separate  its  fortunes  from  the 
fortunes  of  the  community,"  says  President 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         67 

Bascom,  "  neither  can  any  man  long  maintain  in 
a  felicitous  form  any  spiritual  feelings  which 
are  not  shared  by  those  about  him."  *  And  he 
who  wishes  to  strengthen  his  moral  power,  and 
to  stimulate  and  arouse  his  religious  faculties, 
cannot  wisely  refuse  to  lay  hold  of  such  helps 
as  he  can  gain  by  joining  in  study  and  in 
worship  with  those  who  are  seeking  the  same 
things. 

"  Oh,  sweeter  than  the  marriage  feast, 

'T  is  sweeter  far  to  me 

To  walk  together  to  the  kirk 

With  a  goodly  company. 

"  To  walk  together  to  the  kirk, 
And  all  together  pray, 
While  each  to  His  great  Father  bends, 
Old  men,  and  babes,  and  loving  friends, 
And  youths  and  maidens  gay." 

This  is  the  end  of  the  argument,  young  gen- 
tlemen. I  could  not  pay  you  so  sorry  a  com- 
pliment as  to  assume  that  you  were  unwilling 
to  go  into  the  matter  thoroughly,  and  to  think 
it  out,  man -fashion.  That  these  reasonings 

*  The  Words  of  Christ,  p.  89. 


68          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

will  have  much  weight  with  those  whose  main 
purpose  in  life  is  amusement,  I  do  not  expect ; 
but  I  have  hoped  to  convince  those  who  are 
capable  of  serious  thought,  and  who  want  to 
live  wisely  and  worthily,  that  the  practice  of 
churchgoing  is  grounded  in  reason  and  justi- 
fied by  experience;  and  that  no  petty  conceit 
of  culture,  and^no  plea  of  indolence  or  negligent 
habit  or  love  of  fun,  can  justify  them  from 
staying  away  from  the  house  of  God  on  the 
Lord's  day.  And  I  will  trust  that  more  than 
one  young  man  who  reads  these  pages,  after 
turning  the  whole  matter  over  in  his  mind,  will 
come  to  terms  with  his  conscience  after  some 
such  manner  as  this  :  — 

"Yes,  it  is  all  true.  Rest  I  need,  and 
recreation  I  need,  and  I  will  get  them  as  I 
can.  But  I  need  also  to  preserve  and  enlarge 
and  ennoble  my  character.  There  are  faculties 
and  powers  of  my  nature  that  are  but  scantily 
exercised  or  cultivated  in  my  daily  work,  and 
these  are  the  royal  faculties  of  my  nature.  I 
want  to  give  them  a  little  chance  for  devel- 
opment. And  Sunday  is  the  time  and  the 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         69 

church  is  the  place  for  the  care  of  these  higher 
interests.  I  will  go  to  the  church,  and  I  will 
unite  as  heartily  as  I  can  in  its  services.  I 
will  not  hide  myself  in  a  corner,  and  slink  down 
in  my  seat,  and  button  myself  up  in  suspicion 
and  unsympathy ;  doubtless,  if  I  take  that 
attitude,  I  shall  get  but  little  benefit.  But  I 
will  go  in  and  sit  down  with  the  rest,  as  if 
I  were  not  ashamed  to  be  one  of  them ;  and 
I  will  open  my  mind  and  my  heart  to  all  the 
good  influences  ;  I  will  join  in  the  singing;  I 
will  listen  attentively  and  reverently  to  prayer, 
and  Scripture,  and  sermon ;  I  will  be  ready 
to  welcome  and  rejoice  in  everything  that 
ministers  to  my  higher  nature  —  to  my  moral 
and  spiritual  faculties.  Some  things  may  be 
read  or  said  that  I  cannot  understand;  I  will 
put  them  one  side  for  further  thought.  Some 
doctrines  may  be  preached  that  do  not  com- 
mend themselves  to  my  reason ;  I  will  not 
puzzle  over  these  ;  I  will  listen  for  the  words 
that  are  true  to  me,  that  find  me,  that  show 
me  my  faults,  and  tell  me  how  to  mend  them, 
that  make  plainer  to  me  the  way  of  integrity 


70          The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches. 

and  purity,  that  touch  my  higher  feelings  and 
kindle  my  nobler  aspirations,  that  arouse  my 
hatred  for  all  that  is  false  and  mean,  and  lift 
up  before  me  worthier  standards  of  living,  and 
clear  for  me  the  path  that  leads  into  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Infinite  Love,  who  is  my  Father  in 
heaven.  I  know  that  if,  in  this  spirit,  I  join  in 
these  services,  I  shall  find  in  them  something 
that  will  enable  me  to  be  a  better  and  a  happier 
man,  and  that  I  am  going  to  find,  whatever  else 
I  miss." 

One  young  gentleman  bears  the  following 
testimony,  and  it  may  help  to  confirm  any  such 
conclusion  to  which  you  may  have  come  :  — 

"  I  am  personally  acquainted  with  a  number 
of  young  men  who  may  be  classed  as  occasional 
churchgoers  —  that  is,  young  men  who  occa- 
sionally '  drop  in/  sometimes  at  one  church  and 
sometimes  at  another.  In  fact,  I  have  been 
a  member  of  this  class  myself.  How  I  came  to 
be  would  be  a  question  difficult  to  answer.  In 
truth,  the  causes  are  so  few  and  small  that, 
even  could  I  enumerate  them,  I  am  certain  that 
I  should  be  ashamed  of  them.  But  suffice  it  to 


The  Young  Men  and  the  Churches.         ^  I 

say  that  I  have  recently  joined  the  'regulars/ 
and  if  I  am  not  a  better  young  man  for  having 
done  so,  I  have  certainly  absorbed  some  of 
the  moral  influence  which  exists  in  the 
churches;  and  my  friends  among  the  'occa- 
sionals/  have  only  to  try  it  to  feel  and 
know  that  it  pays." 


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